Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal

Kamala Khan is a Pakistani-American teenager in Jersey City, where she lives with her parents Yusuf and Muneeba and her older brother Aamir. She is also a devoted super hero fan, and her favourite is Carol Danvers. When she sneaks out to a party her parents have forbidden, she is caught in the Terrigen Mists released during Marvel's Inhumanity event.

The exposure wakes Inhuman genes she never knew she had. Kamala can now stretch, shrink and enlarge her body, a power she calls embiggening. She takes the name Ms. Marvel in tribute to Danvers, who by now has become Captain Marvel.

This volume gathers the first five issues of the 2014 series, plus the character's earlier introduction. It follows Kamala's clumsy first attempts at rescue work. Meanwhile the life she is improvising in a costume drifts further from the one her family expects of her as daughter, sister and student.

Faith, family and growing up between two cultures carry as much weight as the powers do. Adrian Alphona's loose, crowded artwork gives Jersey City a texture of its own. The tone is warm and personal rather than grim, with a teenager's uncertainty at the centre. The volume won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story.